South Korea 2022: Gwangjang Market, Dongdaemun Design Plaza, & Shake Shack
day 3
After 2 full days of non-stop walking, we did a chill day so our mom could reset. I would be ready to go all out honestly, when I went to Japan for the first time I walked until my ankles were swollen. Put some medicated patches on, give my feet a soak and I’ll be ok for the next day (lol). Today is a good day though because we are off to the famous Gwangjang Market!!
GWANGJANG MARKET
We headed over pretty early, by the time we got there, people were just starting to set up their stalls. There are so many stalls selling things that are pretty similar, you’ll probably feel overwhelmed deciding which place to pick. I feel this is the type of place where you just pick one and sit down, I don’t know if there is truly a best. Early in the morning there isn’t too many people but not surprisingly it started to fill up.
Kimbap
Tteokbokki
Odeng
Some random lady at one of the stalls gestured us to sit down, so we did. We already kind of knew what we wanted to eat but just didn’t know where. We ordered these 3 things: “drug” kimbap, spicy rice cakes and fishcake soup. Let me start first with the spicy rice cakes, they were fat and juicy. It wasn’t too spicy, so if you can’t handle spice then this shouldn’t be too bad for you. I wish they were more chewy - for a plump rice cake, I would assume they would be chewier. Also, it was a bit sweet for my taste but overall pretty good. I give it an acceptable 5/10. I’ll move to the kimbap next, these are pretty simple. They were just wrapped with some pickled radish, carrot, and… I think that was it? I honestly can’t remember. On their own, its pretty basic in my opinion. Light flavour overall and the veggies inside give it a nice crunch. What a lot of people do though is dip them in the tteokbokki sauce. This adds another dimension of flavour - without it 4/10, with the sauce 6/10. Lastly, is the odeng or fishcake soup. After stewing it for sometime, the soup was fresh and flavourful and it was surprisingly refreshing. The fishcake had a nice springy bite to it and it was nice for the cool early morning, this was my mom’s favourite too. Giving this a solid 7/10. All this was under $15CAD.
At these types of places, you try a bit of everything really - if you truly want to experience it. You’re not really looking for a full sit down course experience, if you are, don’t go to a market… The next spot we knew we had to hit up was the famous hand-cut noodle stall that was featured in a Netflix show. The grandma you see on the show IS still working there!
I unfortunately don’t have photo’s of the food sorry but I’m sure you can Google something and yes - it looks exactly like that. There was a bit of a line up when we got to the stall but we didn’t have to wait too long. You will be sitting with your group but you may be next to people you don’t know. It’s just a stall with benches around it. Grab a menu, order, pay, and then just wait for your food to come!
We got an order of mixed giant mandu (Korean style dumplings - kimchi and pork) and a bowl of hand-cut noodles. This combo again I believe was under $15CAD as well. For us, we are very much used to Chinese style dumplings (well because we are Chinese) and are dumpling snobs because we have grown up eating dumplings EVERYDAY (jokes). For the size and price, these are kind of worth it. They were big and one serving for just ~$6CAD could totally feed one person. These for me weren’t the best, the kimchi flavour was ok, it just felt like there was something missing and the pork ones were a bit dry? There was a dipping sauce but that could only help so much. The ones we ate previously were much better. I’m giving these ones a 5/10. The hand-cut noodles were definitely the better pick of the 2. The broth was pretty simple - it was a nice, clean, simple flavour. The noodles were really the star here, it had a great texture/chew to them and with the fresh kimchi as a side dish they provided, yum. Giving this one a solid 7/10.
I will say this place is a little overrated, not that it isn’t good but because I think it became so popular because of the Netflix show and that caused this stall to have a lineup. Then, the question becomes is the food worth the wait - whether yes or no, both are valid.
We walked around for a bit because my sister said there was this really good Korean sugar donut shop that we had to stop at but they hadn’t opened yet. There are some shops you can buy fresh produce at, some sell food souvenirs, and some were selling clothes. Also, strangely on the outer market, there were SO many pharmacies just lining the streets. Seriously, I think we saw at least 5 walking down a street that maybe took us 2 minutes to get to the end of? While we were walking though, we kept seeing these mung bean pancakes that were being fried up and you know that sort of delicious smell that comes with fried stuff? Yeah, well my mom got sucked in and wanted to buy one. So we waited at some random stall and bought one to go. We decided to go wait at the sugar donut line because there was a line already forming before it even opened and tried the pancake. I recommend you eat this one ASAP because it’s still nice and crispy. It is quite oily, so the vinegary soy sauce dipping sauce is a must. But after eating like half of it, you really feel the oil. After a few more bites, we had to part ways with it :’( but giving it a 7/10 fresh and probably throat clogging with oil when cold 4 out of 10.
I know why now that there was a line for this place, you can see them being freshly made and it was just so delicious. Though one old grandpa didn’t care and went straight to the cashier and ordered. My sister told me that the cashier lady was like next time you can’t do that, you have to wait in line as she was handing the donuts to them. I didn’t hear him say anything and he just left - he probably didn’t care and he probably did the same thing the next time (LOL).
Some people were ordering BATCHES of these donuts, I swear I saw someone order like 20 of them. Maybe it was for their business or workplace or something like that? We ordered one of the original sugar donuts and one sweet potato. Since these were freshly made, the original was hot and crispy. The sugar coating gave it a nice sweetness and the inside had this chewy texture - it was SO good. I swear it was just under $1.50 CAD. 9/10 recommend you wait in line just to get this, yes. The sweet potato one was also nice and crispy but I think because it was made with sweet potato, it wasn’t as crispy and it didn’t have the same texture inside as the original did. It was nice to try the 2 different flavours though. Giving the sweet potato one a… 6/10. I can’t remember what the shop is called but you can find it just on the outskirts of the market and you will most definitely see a line.
DONGDAEMUN DESIGN PLAZA
Next, we were off to the DDP. This is normally where Korea Fashion Week takes place, so if you’re into that, this place should look familiar. It’s a pretty popular photo spot I see. But even when fashion week is not taking place, it’s an interesting place to explore and look around. Also, across the street there are some shopping centers.
A lot of people come here to take photos because there are a lot of good spots to do that. On the outside there are a lot of popular spots to take photos like the long walkway down you see in the photo above… on the stairs, and there are a lot of random structures outside that you can take photos with. Even inside some of the buildings there are exhibits/cool spots that you can take photos with.
There was also some show or museum I saw a lot of people going in to see but you have to pay for it… so we didn’t go but if you think you’d be interested research about it before you go to this area.
If you get hungry, there are a lot of spots you can eat at inside the buildings here. And of course, there is a convenience store if you’re well… looking for convenience.
I finally found the pouch drinks and ice cups at a convenience store here and I did try to make one of those TikTok videos… (lol) but it didn’t turn out the best so… that one is just for my eyes. We only stopped and sat down for a few minutes to rest a bit and get a drink to quench our thirst. I got the hazelnut latte and it was good in the sense of a decent hazelnut flavour but they were SO SO sweet. Now I know why people either mix their drink or get an americano… My sister picked up the “black lemon ade” and she said it wasn’t good.
After exploring here a bit, we went across the street as there were a couple buildings with shopping. It was mainly clothes and I would still go into shops like Nike and Adidas even if you have them in your home country because they sometimes sell country exclusive items… At the bottom floor of these shopping buildings there was a huge food court, so if the DDP didn’t have any options that interested you, try next door!
One of the main reasons we stopped by the area as well was because there was a Shake Shack (which I just found out that they’re finally opening a store in Toronto next year and they say 35 stores in Canada by 2035 - we love that).
We picked up the original shack burger, a coffee shake, and this special truffle chicken burger. The shack burger will never disappoint honestly, its so good anywhere you go I swear. In this case, you really do get what you pay for and Shake Shack isn’t cheap… The truffle chicken burger was definitely tasty but I think the burger itself costed like $15? I can’t remember honestly but I swear it was more than $10 and that’s pretty damn expensive for fast food. It was great to try but I wouldn’t get it again or recommend getting it - I’ll give it a 6/10. I feel like shakes are pretty standard, you already know what to expect. It was good.
After this, I’m pretty sure we decided to head back. I think we stopped by Lotte Mart to pick up some stuff to cook at our Airbnb for dinner but that was it for this day! Stay tunned for the next post though it’ll be a LONG and eventful one [enter clickbait title “We almost got murdered in South Korea” here, no but honestly, it was kinda scary]… so stay tuned!
-Thomas